Dorothy Clive garden

Posted on March 22, 2020March 22, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Cheshire, Closed for the time being, Day out, Dorothy Clive garden, Garden, Gardening, Life, Shropshire, Staffordshire, VirusLeave a comment

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Just had an email from the Dorothy Clive Garden, explaining that they are closing due to government advice.

It’s a lovely place on the border with Staffordshire, Cheshire and Shropshire. It is a magical garden on a steep slope. If you get a chance when things have calmed down do go.

This is what I wrote back to them…

We visit to come and see the wonderful rhododendrons in the quarry garden every year, and have been enjoying watching the ecology section being created. Then the rest of it is just wonderful when it’s in full bloom. I love sitting outside the cafe and drawing the view, or walking down the steep slope towards the pond. Watching goldfish as they quietly go about their lives under the surface.

Ive been visiting over several years. When I was fit I used to cycle over with my husband.

I have a very overgrown small garden with lots of trees, but we have some amazing geraniums that have spread everywhere. We got them from you a few years ago.

Hoping for a speedy resolution to the current situation.
Sincerely

Amaryllis

Posted on March 10, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Amaryllis, Bulbs, Feeding, Flowers, Gardening, Indoor plants, Leaves, pots, Red, WateringLeave a comment

IMG_20200302_112003_579_optimized It’s flowered. My Amaryllis is in flower. Bright red trumpets. Three big flowers.

There are two other plants, they have leaves, but no flowers. I hope they might still send up long stems with buds. I’m watering them, but it might not be till next year, then perhaps they will flower. Amaryllis like to be tightly packed into their pots, and so I don’t re-pot them until they have started to outgrow their pots. The one that is flowering is over ten years old. It was a Christmas present from my mother. It has a second bulb growing next to it, and when that gets large enough I may try and dislodge it and grow it in a new pot.

I do think they have possibly been overfed this year. When I have fed my orchids I have given any spare water with food in it, to the amaryllis plants. Usually I don’t bother to feed them. They do seem to have put on a lot of leaves so perhaps that is why they are not flowering as well as normal.

Morning glory plants

Posted on March 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Blogging, Blue, Flowers, Gardening, Green, Hanging basket, Landscape, Morning glory, Painting, Plants, Summer2 Comments

A few years ago painted this morning glory as it flowered. I’d nurtured the plant on a windowledge, carefully watered it. Put it outside when the summer was warm enough so it would stay alive.

It was in a hanging basket outside in the garden when I decided to paint it in situ. As I painted the flower opened and then at the end of the day closed and wilted (the same thing happened with the following days flowers). Hard to capture but beautiful. I might do a copy or similar painting.

Acrylic on canvas. Small flowers are lobelia, and the cream ones are surfinias.

Hydrangea

Posted on March 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blue, Colour, Flowers, Garden, Gardening, Hydrangea, Inspiration, Life, Petals, pH, Pink, PlantLeave a comment

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New plant for the garden, although its really too cold to go directly into the garden at the moment. Hydrangeas change colour depending on the acidity of your soil. I don’t remember which way it is, but they either turn blue or red depending if the soil is acid or alkaline. You can do a pH test if you want to. The flowers appear as florets, lots of little flower heads spread across the bloom. There are different sorts, some with small flowers which looks like lace, others are chunkier, some are flat headed, others have rounded bunches of flowers. Leaves are large and usually mid to dark green with serrated edges to the leaves.

I remember the pink hydrangea in my Grans garden, it was pink with huge heads of flowers. I did a painting of her in front of the plant. I will have to try and find a photo of it.

Fruit

Posted on March 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Chain saw, Colour, Exhibition, Fruit, Garden, Gardening, Life, Painting, Photo, Subjects, Tree2 Comments

Just found out I have been offered an exhibition at the Waiting room gallery in April. The theme will be gardening, green men and women and spring, but I also want to do colourful work. I’ve been going around looking for subjects in the house as the garden isn’t growing yet, just a few buds.

The light was streaming in through the kitchen window and illuminating all the fruit my hubby bought yesterday. So I took a photo of it.

I will try and get some more interesting shots later. At the moment a neighbour is cutting down a tree, so I’m staying out the way. The sound of chainsawing doesn’t fill me with confidence!

Orchids or Triffids?

Posted on February 9, 2020February 9, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Ariel roots, Beauty, Environment, Flowering plants, Gardening, Growing, Indoor plants, Inspiration, Life, Orchid medium, Orchids, Photo, Pretty, Propagation?2 Comments

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My biggest orchid is getting a bit rampant, it’s ariel roots are slowly growing across the cupboard. The smallest one is gradually dying. I think I need to give its roots a bit more air and fresh orchid medium. The middle one seems OK although it’s flowers only lasted a couple of weeks. The house isn’t very warm (usually between 18 and 20°C, sometimes as low as 16°C) but I’ve made sure they are not in a draft. I found out they like to grow in clear plastic pots, they like the light getting to them. I’m planning to repot after the flowers die off… Any advice about ariel roots. Can I cut them back…. I don’t want to damage the plant.

Oak tree in our kitchen..

Posted on February 8, 2020February 8, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acorn, Christmas cactus, Climate Emergency, Environment, Gardening, Growth, Indoor plants, Kitchen windowsill, Life, Oak, SucculentsLeave a comment

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He sneaked in an acorn into one of my indoor plant pots, and now its growing into a tiny oak tree. Leaves growing despite the winter frosts.

My other plants are thriving, mainly Christmas cactus. A few other succulents.

On the other hand succulents are being ripped out of their natural habitats because they have become fashionable. The environment they are from are being trashed by greedy humans.

So I don’t buy them, I propagate them from cuttings. And the oak? I hope I can find it a good home so it grows into a huge old tree in time.

Helibores are flowering

Posted on January 17, 2020January 17, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bluebells, Crocuses, Daffodils, Garden, Gardening, Poem, Poetry, Snowdrops, Spring, Windflower, Winter and spring, Wood anemoneLeave a comment

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Helibores are flowering,

Snowdrops soon will bloom,

Then will follow crocuses

With the light of the moon.

Daffodils and Tulips, all in a row,

Then come the wind flowers,

Wood anemone,

Finally in sunshine

Bluebells, for to see….

Spring will alive

With flowers for you and me.

Daisy type flowers

Posted on January 17, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Colour, Daisies, Flowers, Gardening, Photo, Plants, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Trentham, Trentham Gardens2 Comments

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One of my favourites. The centres of these are a multitude of flowers with petals round the edges (think of sunflower hearts). There are oxeye daisies and osteospermums, cone flowers, asters, all sorts of types and colours. Life in all its variations can be wonderful. This photo is of Rudbeckia I think, taken at Trentham Gardens in the autumn. What I like about daisies is the length of time throughout the year that they flower. They cheer me up.

Have you ever made daisy chains? We used to when we were kids. Pick a daisy and make a hole in the stalk with your fingernail parallel with the stalk, then thread another daisy through till the flower head is in contact with the stem. Then do again till you have a chain. (I’m not suggesting you do this, just how we did it, you shouldn’t pick wildflowers).

Slugs must have some use?

Posted on January 14, 2020January 14, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blackbirds, Frogs, Garden, Gardening, Humour, Oem, Plants, Poetry, Slugs, Why?Leave a comment

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You know how it is..

You go into the garden

When it rains

And there are slugs.

What are they for?

They munch your broccoli,

Eat the hearts of your lettuce,

Nip the buds off peonies,

And eat your ripe tomatoes.

But they also eat old and diseased vegetables.

They help clear up leaves

In the autumn,

And they are food for blackbirds and frogs.

So not all bad then…?

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Gardening